1. Field of the Invention
The present application is directed to a method and apparatus for sorting articles, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for sorting articles of differing densities or weight such as glass and plastic bottles.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, the sorting of glass and plastic bottles has been accomplished by manually examining a plurality of glass and/or plastic bottles housed within a storage crate to determine the composition of the bottles therein and whether the bottles contain liquid which is a contaminant in the recycling process if present in greater than a predetermined amount within the bottle. This manual examination often required the physical removal of plastic bottles from the crate to determine if excessive liquid was present therein. It can be appreciated that a manual examination of each bottle within a crate of twelve to sixteen bottles will be both time consuming and labor intensive.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for a substantial increase in speed of examination and resulting sorting of glass and plastic bottles within the bottling industry. It should be understood, however, that the method and apparatus disclosed herein, while being presented in the context of bottle sorting, is equally applicable to the high speed sorting of virtually any articles which are sorted according to the density or weight thereof.